Law enforcement would be non existant. The police would probably be the first ones killed when the masses see they have no real plan to control the masses. They would be the object of rage of the mass riots that would start in the very early stages of a breakdown.

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 26860321

Maybe not non-existent, but a high probability that their numbers would dwindle due to attrition. For example in Hurricane Katrina, 25% of the police force left. Who knows what a protracted collapse would do. You can't pay them. Their families are in danger unless bunkered. It's a valid point. [link to www.cgsc.edu] excerp

"Some places, such as New Orleans, seemingly descended into anarchy. There were reports that as many as 25 percent of the New Orleans police force walked off the job. “They indicated that they had lost everything and didn’t feel that it was worth them going back to take fire from looters and losing their lives,” said Colonel Henry Whitehorn of the Louisiana state police.19 New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin claimed that the city was overrun by “drug-starving crazy addicts, drug addicts, that are wreaking havoc. And we don’t have the manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections of the city and form a perimeter around them and hope to God that we’re not overrun.”20

Original source: “Mayor to Feds: ‘Get Off Your Asses,’” CNN, 2 September 2005) [link to www.cnn.com] (accessed 18 March 2008)